DLS in Graphics

We present work at the interface of 3D computer graphics and digital photography. Digital cameras have brought a first revolution by dramatically facilitating the way we take and share pictures. We believe that they are about to bring a second revolution: Digital processing will dramatically improve the quality of pictures and the flexibility with which we can interact with them.

We have developed non-linear filters that decompose an image into components that are meaningful to the manipulation and that follow human perception. For a particular image enhancement, we manipulate the relevant components to reach the desired pictorial goal. The manipulation is greatly facilitated by the appropriate decoupling. We finally recombine all the components to get the improved image.

With our techniques, a user can alleviate over- and under-exposure, turn photos into 3D representations, relight the depicted scene, or modify the textures. New tools facilitate the imitation of traditional media such as drawing, and we study amd manipulate pictorial style using recent development in the statistical analysis of images.

Fr édo Durand received his PhD from Grenoble University (France) in 1999. He worked with Claude Puech and George Drettakis on both theoretical and practical aspects of 3D visibility. From 1999 till 2002, he has been a post-doc in the MIT Computer Graphics Group with Julie Dorsey, where he is now an assistant professor. His research interests span most aspects of picture generation and creation. This includes realistic image synthesis and display acceleration for real-time graphics, using tools such as 3D geometry, visibility calculations and perceptual models. He is also working on image based-rendering, with a strong emphasis on the manipulation and alteration of hyrbid representations between images and geometry, which has applications to special effects, digital photography and video. He has recently been interested in non-photorealistic rendering, a field that attempts to imitate traditional pictorial styles, where his long-term goal is the parameterization and capture of the elusive notion of style.